120 
[No 2, 
C. J. Lyall —Translations from the Hamaseh. 
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Dureyd son of es-Simmeh. 
I warned them, both 'Arid and the men who went 'Arid’s way 
—the stock of Benu-s-Sauda : yea, all are my witnesses. 
I said to them: 'Think— even now two thousand are on your 
track, 
all laden with spear and sword, their captains in Persian mail/ 
But when they would hearken not, I followed their road, though I 
knew well they were fools, and that I walked not in Wisdom’s 
way: 
For am I not hut one of Ghaziyyeh ? and if they err, 
I err with my house; and if Ghaziyyeh go right, so I. 
5 I read them my rede one day beneath where the sandhills fail: 
the morrow at noon they saw my counsel as I had seen. 
A shout rose, and voices cried—' The horsemen have slain a 
knight !’ 
I said—' Is it 'Abdallah, the man who ye say is slain V 
I sprang to his side : the spears had riddled his body through, 
as weaver on outstretched web plies deftly the sharp-toothed 
comb. 
I stood as a camel stands with fear in her heart, and seeks 
the stuffed skin with eager mouth, and thinks—is her youngling 
slain ? 
I plied spear above him till the riders had left their prey, 
and over myself black blood flowed forth in a dusky tide. 
10 I fought as a man who gives his life for his brother’s life, 
who knows that his time is short, that Death’s doom above 
him hangs. 
But know ye, if ‘’Abdallah be gone, and his place a void, 
no weakling unsure of hand, and no holder-back was he ! 
Alert, keen, his loins well girt, his leg to the middle bare, 
unblemished and clean of limb, a climber to all things high : 
No waiter before ill luck : one mindful in all he did 
to think how his work to-day would live in to-morrow’s tale : 
